Student-led campaign group calls for second Brexit vote

Young anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate at the gates of Downing Street in central London after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Photo credit: AAP

A student-led anti-Brexit campaign group is calling for another vote to prevent the UK from leaving the European Union.

For Our Future's Sake (FFS), a group claiming to represent almost a million young people in the UK says there are about 1.4 million teenagers who missed out on voting in the June 2016 referendum and deserve to have their say because Brexit could affect their futures.

"If enough young people join together and make their voices heard, we can stop a decision that will damage the UK for generations," says the campaign group's website.

"In a democracy, people should have the right to change their minds. It's clear that the Brexit that many people voted for is not what they've got now."

In a public letter to the UK Parliament - signed by representatives from unions at 60 of the country's universities and colleges - the group argues that promises made during the Brexit campaign haven't been kept.

"We believe there were legitimate grievances that led to a Leave vote, both economic and social. However, the world is a different place to 2016. Promises made during the campaign have not been kept," the letter says.

"We are firmly of the belief that it is in our members' interests to retain the benefits of European Union membership."

"We are concerned that this will not happen, and that the public and our members have a far greater understanding of what the UK outside of the EU will look like."

FFS claims the economic burden of Brexit will fall "disproportionately on young people", with the government's own impact studies showing Britain "poorer under every Brexit scenario".

Amatey Doku, deputy president of the National Union of Students, and a spokesman for FFS, told the Guardian the students "need to be listened to".

"Students and young people overwhelmingly voted Remain and cannot see how the government can deliver a Brexit deal that works for them."

British Prime Minister Theresa May has refused to entertain another Brexit vote, insisting the UK will leave the EU by March 2019.

The opposition Labour Party has also shied away from backing another referendum, but has set a number of requirements Theresa May must meet in her negations in Brussels if she's to receive Labour's support.

If the final deal is voted down, it's understood the government will still go ahead and take the UK out of the EU without a deal and quit the bloc on default World Trade Organisation terms, according to The Independent.